McIlroy, NBC Sports Group Launch GolfPass

Rick Young

Rick Young

Early Tuesday NBC Sports Group, along with founding partner Rory McIlroy, launched GolfPass, an all-encompassing direct-to-consumer subscription program targeted to a global demographic that lives and breathes the game through multiple activations, including digital-based content via personal device screens.

GolfPass brings together a number of the programming assets under NBC Sports Group’s GOLF division (formerly Golf Channel), marries them with fresh content from McIlroy, and puts them all under one roof in a one-stop, five-pillar consumer engagement platform — Play, Learn, Watch, Travel and Shop.

Included in value-added packaging, according to the news release, is free rounds of golf for subscribers at 7,000-plus GolfNow partner courses worldwide; access to more than 4,000 on-demand instruction videos, including Revolution Golf’s Sean Foley, Cameron McCormick, Martin Chuck, Chris Como, Martin Hall and Andrew Rice; access to Golf Channel’s library of archived content; travel credits at top resorts and member pricing on TaylorMade golf equipment.

The Carlsbad, Calif., equipment company is a presenting sponsor of GolfPass. TaylorMade’s involvement might, in part, explain why the industry heavyweight chose to take a pass from this year’s PGA Show.

As founder, brand ambassador and a key stakeholder, McIlory will be a frequent content contributor. The four-time major champion is already committed to a regular GolfPass podcast with Carson Daly of NBC’s Today Show and he will star in four original programs: My Roots; My Daily Routine; Lessons with a Champion Golfer (a 12-part series that also features McIlroy’s swing coach Michael Bannon) and Toughest Tracks, which will showcase top golfers, analysts and celebrities playing some of the world’s most difficult holes.

The first episode of Toughest Tracks will see McIlroy host a walking-and-talking tour of the newly designed seventh hole at Royal Portrush, site of this year’s Open Championship.

On tour, McIlroy will endorse GolfPass through a brand logo on the front panel of his TaylorMade staff bag starting next week at the Genesis Open.

Terms of the agreement, as per usual, were not made available.

It is, however, reasonable to assume the deal is multi-faceted with up-front and annual monetary allocation along with the potential for a McIlroy equity stake based on his extensive and high-profile involvement. It’s also reasonable to believe that this latest activation could, in time, become his most lucrative asset.

“It’s really taking the Golf Channel that was founded 25 years ago by Arnold (Palmer) and bringing it into the 21st century,” said McIlroy on a conference call. “I think Arnold would be very proud of what we’re trying to do here today.”

Palmer’s vision for Golf Channel in 1995 should not be ignored as it relates to GolfPass. Twenty-five years ago the idea of a 24-7 golf-only network bordered on the absurd. How could such a one-dimensional, single-sport platform sustain itself hour-after-hour, day-after-day?

Media analysts had the network out of business inside of six months.

What those analysts and other doubters failed to account for was the game’s culture and the lifestyle attributes that manifest from it. Not only is golf an entertainment-infused, viewable sport, but people worldwide relate closer to professional play than any other sporting pastime. They can experience the same courses and equipment, wear the same attire and footwear, play alongside the game’s best in a pro-am, and, in general, have golf become a part of who they are as a person.

Tour pro or amateur, golfers are golfers.

Golf Channel numbers seem to bear that out. Today, it reaches 500 million viewers in 70 countries and it broadcasts in nine languages.

“I can’t think of another (sport) where the viewership in golf and the people that watch the game at the top level, they play the game as well, and I don’t really see that with football (soccer),” said McIlroy. “Golf is a lifestyle. It’s a way of life that I don’t think other sports can really offer so I think that’s why it’s uniquely placed to be able to put something together like this (GolfPass).”

Twenty-five years after Palmer helped throw the switch at Golf Channel what McIlroy and Mike McCarley, president, GOLF, NBC Sports want to do is modernize how golf life-stylists and enthusiasts engage their sport through screen activations and portable devices.

“My wife would tell you that I probably spend too much time on my device,” McIlroy explained when I asked about his tech habits, “but I do spend a lot of time, whether it be on my phone or iPad watching different content, whether it’s golf or other sports or movies or whatever it is. That is the way of the world nowadays. People pay for things on their phone. Everything is on this little handheld device that we keep on us. That’s why GolfPass is so good.”

McCarley insists that GolfPass could not have a better brand ambassador than the Northern Irishman; someone genuinely considered by some to be a modern-day Palmer.

“When we approached Rory about this, it was about a year ago last spring, what impressed me was that he immediately gravitated to what Mr. Palmer had done when he launched Golf Channel,” McCarley said on the call. “He understood how it stands as a living legacy for Mr. Palmer to give back to a game that gave him so much and really kind of build this virtual community of people where they can engage with one another around a sport they love. That meant a lot to me personally, and I know that Mr. Palmer would have loved that thinking as well. It was that moment that I knew we had the right partner and right founder of this business in Rory McIlroy.”

Now the question is are consumers willing to pay for GolfPass?

Membership is $9.99 (all figures US) per month or $99 per year, which is in line with the current price for Revolution Golf. For $199 a year consumers can also sign up for GolfPass+, which offers enhanced GolfNow benefits.

Although it’s much too soon to gauge how GolfPass and Discovery’s GolfTV will match up in a side-by-side tale-of-the-tape, what’s obvious with both is the vision. They are each seeking to be the heavyweight champion of golf’s digital tier using a big box model.

Not to be ignored is the competitive digital rivalry about to transpire between the two lead brand ambassadors: Tiger Woods and GolfTV vs. Rory McIlroy and GolfPass.

“We’re really looking at this as building a media business based around the sport of golf that’s forward thinking and will be around for the next 25 years,” said McCarley in his closing comment, “much like Golf Channel has been around for the 25 years since Mr. Palmer founded it.”